The invention relates generally to ovens for preparing food products, and more particularly to an oven that cooks by heat or steam or smoke or any combination thereof, with substantially no wasted by-products.
Food products, for example meats such as beef, pork, and poultry, as well as fish and the like, traditionally are prepared for consumption by subjecting the raw product to sufficient heat so as to cook the product to an appropriate level of doneness. Various ovens or cookers are used for roasting, broiling, smoking or barbequing meat. In most instances, the cookers or ovens used to prepare the product have a cooking chamber and a source of convection heat, for example, electric heating elements, gas jets, wood or charcoal burners. In commercial food preparation, for example in restaurants, large ovens are employed to cook or prepare large quantities of product at one time. For example, large convection ovens or barbeque ovens or smokers are used to prepare batches of food products, such as roasts, ribs, chickens, fish and sometimes potatoes and other vegetables. These products generally are placed on racks inside the cooking chamber and subjected to heat and/or smoke
It is recognized that when products, such as meat, are prepared in conventional ovens, often there are substantial amounts of wasted by-products. For example, because the conventional ovens generally cook with dry heat and because the meats are placed directly into pans near the heat source, drippings from the meat evaporate or burn. In other conventional ovens, the by-products flow to the bottom of the oven, contacting unsanitary surfaces. These drippings are directed into waste collectors to be disposed of. In most conventional ovens, for convenience of emptying, the waste collectors are located outside the cooking chamber so as to be further contaminated. These collected waste products also are exposed to ambient temperatures, which allow the waste products to become rancid or spoiled. In other conventional ovens, the drippings contact the heat source, such as burning wood or heating elements, and burned, generating smoke.
It has been recently recognized, however, that these by-products that previously were discarded or burned, can be used to prepare stock, such as gravy stock, au jus, bastes or marinades. Presently, most commercial food preparation establishments purchase products such as gravy or gravy stock from a commercial supplier, adding cost to finished product. Also, the resulting product is less savory or flavorful than a naturally produced product.
It would be advantageous, therefore, to provide an oven for preparation of food products having means for collecting the savory by-products rendered through the cooking process. Such a collecting means would retain the by-products in a sanitary receptacle and keep the rendered products at an appropriate temperature to retard bacterial growth or spoilage. Such an oven would allow the preparer of the food to lower costs while producing a more tasty product, such as naturally prepared gravies, soup stocks or the like.
Also, it would be advantageous to provide such an oven that not only allows collection and use of the by-products, but also provide multiple forms of cooking, such as heat steam and smoke, to impart greater versatility to the oven. Such an ideal oven would be capable of preparing food products according to a pre-programmed cooking regimen tailored to each particular food product to obtain the optimum results.